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Part 135
Sitemap '--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Lots More Fabulous Items/Ideas For a BioShock Rapture MMORPG '--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Part 135 --- --- --- --- --- --- "There are no pockets on a shroud" - something said by Splicers. ''' --- --- --- '''A Poem : "Columbia is old town, lost town; shabby town, bad town. Once, very long ago, it was a wonder of a city, and there are still standing a few of the jigsaw Gothic building with wide porches and walls covered with round-end shingles and full corner bay windows and spindle turrets. They are all asylum houses now, their parquetry floors are scratched and vomit stained, and the wide sweeping staircases are dark with time and cheap varnish laid on over generations of filth. In the tall rooms, haggard denziens bicker with shifty ghosts. On the wide front porches, living corpses reach their cracked shoes into the sun, staring at nothing. Thus sit the old men with faces like lost battle." ((Columbia the Flying Backwater, was left behind by the World who also now had the "Quantumz")) --- --- --- Infinite BS - Not Sci-Fi, and Not Even Good Fantasy : Classic Science Fiction presents some technological change which then affects society and individuals. Fantasy is a backdrop to demonstrate some situation worth considering for a story. OK, so Infinite BS has Floaty Shit™, Time Travel and somekind of godhood imposed on a person (not science THAT). But really what affect has it had on people ? The things we see which are supposedly Dystopic could easily exist on the ground. * Its Despotic, and a Police State - on the ground in that (and our) World there was/is tons of that. * Its Racist/Bigoted - plenty of that on the ground, everywhere. * Its Theocratic - NOT flying up in the air doesn't stop that (just read the news today ...) * Its Crony Capitalism (An attempted dig at Laissez-Faire economy, except its mostly a controlled monopoly... Fink) - look around you pilgrim (I mean YOU). Exploited workers... yeah that's *new* in the world -- NOPE. * Its full of Inequality and Power for the Few -- Welcome to the rest of the World. * Its Isolation allowing the Extremism - you can do all this on ground (Never heard of Heart of Darkness? or the Soviet Union ? Or the Jim Jones Cult in the middle of Guiana ?) SO what changes to Society does this FloatyShit™ cause that's different ? * Its a rebellious counter culture -- Reactionary - but reverting to what exactly ? Business as usual in a genteel small town setting, but then having a massive paramilitary presence and warmachines parading through it as if 'ordinary'). No 'floating' is required for that. * Its America 1900, enabled. Sorry No. Only a Retarded Dustbunny would think so. Its an Illogical Dystopia made for a shoot-em-up-game's excuse for a story. * Modern Outlook of that Age ("Look !! We use technology !!"). That was happening in the rest of America too without 'Quantumz' at all. In Columbia the 'Quantumz' advances are barely used - where clever people's Visions of what might be, might have been built/shown. Strange to make parts of the place look like Coney Island, but again that's hardly anything substantial (something convenient to clone). "The modern becomes ordinary", but look how little they've done with it beyond the rest of America of that time. * Easier Production and More Prosperity ? - serfdom and company town mentality are shown instead. * If anything, Floaty Shit™ should have given people Mobility, and everyone who DIDN'T like the place would have long previously left ((Oops, there goes the reason for most of the plot's setting)). * You still largely had 2 Dimensional Movement for Player actions, and any new possible mobility was NOT created (handy to allow the Player to bypass more violence, or to more wondrously explore ). ((What would be left of the game if that was possible ?? Clever Sneak-Past situations are actually harder to program than arranging those mindless tactic-less shootouts Infinite BS was full of.)) * Oppression is shown in an "After School Special" milk-toast mode - all watered down and thinned out to be inoffensive and non-committal (("Edgy", like a lump of PlayDoh)). * The Quantum-caused "Tear" stuff (those side-effect of Floaty Shit™) and their Holy Lamb-Demon should have made people fearful to the point of Iconoclasm. Instead, they stroll around unconcerned (even when a heavily armed outsider rushes past them). Their safe little world is threatened, and the White populace should swarm out like ants, with guns - but no, 'safe' evil Police and Security Monstrocities are there for the defense ((and available for the 'Hero's mass-slaughtering goodness)). * Its "Frankenstein" (man trying to play god) -- Oops, no, Elizabeth hardly plays the part except in a few Canned Scenes. Most of what danger/change Elizabeth represents hasn't happened yet (and actually was removed from the game when it was too hard for them to do -- see those older Promotional Trailers). ((BTW, one US nuclear-tipped missile could take out all of Columbia, from the late 50s on, and well before it started destroying NYC. WW2 technology could easily have done the same)). * The Story is supposed to be about Redemption (the setting is immaterial to that concept), but going back in time and using suicide is posed as 'the answer' (and repetitive mass murdering by the Player happens all along its path, which apparently seems OK). BTW, if you didn't realize, going to another dimension to switch-to/get a better/convenient situation (done several times in the plot) DOESN'T fix the dimension you left. * The Floaty Shit™ is pretty and different (needed to sell a game), but it somehow is supposed to be 'BioShock' here ???? (the Game Branding really being the biggest factor in sales for this thing). The Wonder City in the Clouds might as well have been a cardboard cutout (wasn't it ?) as far as its importance to the story. It also could have been much further (imaginatively) utilized to make Columbia far more 'Wondrous', instead of just some transplanted 1900 ordinariness, and some pretty half-cloud-hidden backgrounds. * Physics Shock - WTF does Quantum Particles have to do with 'Bio' anything ??? Its all just a Sellout by them of OUR game. Magic Beans would have been MORE 'Bio', and as Scientifically real. - Even in Fantasy, the MAGIC would be the thing that warps/shifts Society, but as shown above, very little Society was really warped in any significant/different way. --- --- -- Miniature Golf was "Garden Golf" way back when ... ' : You would think that Ryan would have a real putting green in/adjacent to his office. (Its more challnging with real grass). Elsewhere in Rapture, there might be a 9 hole Golf Course (made by some entrepreneur who figured out he could do that AND sell the oxygen generated by the Grass (an extra game 'hazard' might be the not-overly-high ceiling in much of it). --- --- --- '''Nature of "Tears" ' : The Blue Fin Restaurant Events Made me Consider : The weird sounds and smells (and other such things which might come out of those 'Tears' (the Kinetoscope about them in Infinite BS being of such poor quality barely showed anything, and still caused fear and consternation). Consider also the 'clean' ones we see are being controlled by Elizabeth or one of the machines, but others which just spontaneously appear may be far more irregular/unstable/dangerous. The story of having Fink looking through them and gaining whole technologies is bad/unlikely enough with stable 'Tears' being involved, and is even more dodgey if he was supposed to do it through the unstable ones. His brother might be able to gain snatches of music and words sufficiently to create and base his selling some new songs/music (though exactly worded ones in their entirety would be quite a bit harder). SO sound comes through ? What about smells and microbes and vermin and poisons ??? Columbia might have quickly been turned into a flying pesthouse and mass grave rather quick -- that (given the odds) WOULD be the fate of an infinite number of 'Columbias' (and "Frumbias" and "Gumbyas", etc ... ) --- --- --- '''Security Bots Were a Fairly Late Development in Rapture : Even ones that were remote-controlled (via radio links) required miniaturized electronics. Radio Repeaters to assure good system communications might need (be-required) to be added in areas where the Security Bots were installed. Such systems would have sets of frequencies for multiple unit operations. Such technological advancements probably were improved with over-a-decade's of Rapture's tech improvements - being used for radio phones and portable radios. McClendon Robotics added more automatic features to make the Security Devices more reliable (via better transistors and use of ADAM enhanced Bio-Electronics - in the late 50s). The systems AI (requiring big computers) could always be located in a central Base Station, and still make use of Operator supervision/action-authorizations. DO we know whether these devices ever were completely independent of operator control ? Firing on a Citizen would be risky to leave upto some completely autonomous system (there is mention of some in use BEFORE Kashmir caused Ryan to increase Rapture's security measures). In 'killzones' (where noone unauthorized is supposed to be), as where the Atlas-infested parts of the city were separated/cordoned-off from the more stable Ryan-controlled areas, much looser fire-policy would be in effect. These devices were probably used initially for Patrolling areas which would take numerous cameras, and if armed, most likely had non-lethal weapons or even ones only to 'mark' perpetrators. Earlier, various commercial interests would want to implement their own 'better' Security for their premises. - Some Splicers may have figured out how to jam the Flybot's Tweeter Sonar (used for obstacle avoidance) or to throw them off/confuse them sufficiently. (Whistling or tooting on some flute thingee to throw that system off). - Some models of Flybots may have had propellers with 5 or 6 blades each (on each of the 2 contra-rotating propellors). That being to provide enough lift while minimizing the rotor diameter, to better manage those tight indoor maneuverings (Its challenging TODAY to have one of these 'drones' navigate such tight environments, even with decades more sophisticated electronics and computer control.) --- --- --- ADAM Knowledge A Valuable Import : "DNA : In 1953, two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, were trying to put together a model of DNA. They analyzed and took a look at Franklin and Wilkin's X-ray crystalography data and made their model." So with the general unlikeliness for this advancement being "home grown" in Rapture, its more likely new Scientific Information was being imported INTO Rapture (Ryan probably would be allowing some well-vetted/controlled/authorized things via his Surface Organization AFTER the 1952 general cutoff of Surface contact. Such knowledge would assist greatly in advancing the medical and genetic research of Suchong, Tenenbaum and others (corresponding to Tenenbaum's SeaSlug discovery --- maybe NOT a coincidence as per the game writers date setting of important Rapture events). --- --- --- MASERs Predate LASERs by 8 Years : MASER = "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" So it predates the Civil War (Anarchist Uprising) adequately (up on the Surface) to have a chance to be developed into SOMETHING useful before the disruptions post 1958 to the city's stability. Consider that the presence of "LASERs" in Minerva's Den implies sufficient stability and organization continuing there (its unlikely a later 'Closed Off' Minerva's Den would develop such things - for whom ? ... Who's would be paying for it ? Who got the idea from the Surface ? Etc... You don't just "wave the hand" to develop such things, no matter the poor Fantasy you saw in Infinite Bullshit or its bastard stepchild - Fartitudes at Sea. MASER technology would lead to Microwave ovens (advertised up on the Surfaced in the 50s). Ignore the device in the BaSx DLC as problematic (MASERs run on electric power - alot for it to be used as any gun). --- --- --- Automatic Gentleman (Concept) - Their Animations : If they weren't too badly done to interact with the Player, they needed to react/do many actions -- which equals $$$ development costs. Their body/skeleton framework doesn't operate/move like a humans, so another set of animation movements would have to be choreographed. Understandable that they would have those Motorized Patriots with their simple limited motions and those other 'Beast'/Firemen/Boys-o-Silence things reusing many humanoid movements, which would offset the cost of the more varying (more unique) Handymen movements. MMORPG Redo of "Infinite : Fixed" could have a sub-story about the mechanical men putting alot of the Untermenschen serfs out of work (so all those 'impure' immigrant/racial types could be discarded and no longer taint 'Eden'). SO it could be back to the Luddite plot concept element (and also have more non-human Politically-Correct 'robots' to mass kill for the Player). It also could be back to the 'hacking' type activities for the game also (gears and whatnot now). --- --- --- In Rapture Things Were Supposed to Largely Work as You Would Expect : Most of peoples lives would be much the same as on the (urban) Surface, and most substitutions of newer technology would be used the same way (as was happening above in America). It was somewhat cramped and sometimes wet (being a city under the sea), but that wasn't caused by that 'Bio' ADAM stuff (The City was built well before ADAM was even discovered). The Philosophy was not too far off from Surface American's society (socialism still hadn't invaded every part of people's lives, yet). Then the '"Bio" 'Shock' happened that stressed Rapture Society's stability to the breaking point. Contrast : In Columbia with Quantumz 'magic' (And other faux-science the game writers created) things are ALREADY floating around up there in the sky, but the 'Shock' (Bio or otherwise) isn't there for the inhabitants. They seem to be going about their normal everyday business. Tears appear here and there, but -- "NOT THAT SHOCKING" apparently to the people lounging on the Beach. New tunes are heard, and some mundane devices (many with some unexplained blue glowey orb) seem to get used - normally, but Vigorz/Gearz/Saltz don't seem to be much used by people. Vehicles 'float' and transport stuff, but they might as well be on the ground for it being much of a difference. Oh yes, Booker shows up and starts slaughtering people in large firefights, but weren't the anarchist Vox already doing that ? Did THEY happen because of Quantumz ?? Remember - Anarchists started blowing things up/murdering people down below around that time too, so NO. So wheres the "Shock" ? And then Booker and Elizabeth jump off to some other more convenient dimension/universe (several times). Eventually they reach a Columbia where their is an uprising by the lower classes, overcoming the massive Police State apparatus seen earlier. By the end after much more violence, everything is unmade. In the end is no 'Shock', because everything is now gone (until the DLC). The plot has the 'world changing' bit outside of the players activities. It might have been imaginative to have the game show 'future events' with some real 'SHOCK' -- in a reveal that the World had long previously seized upon the new Quantumz technology and had far surpassed Columbia, and now had finally come to 'Clean Up' the disagreeable set of people inhabiting that repugnant den of Slavery and Tyrants. --- --- --- Gas LASER : I just hope that doesn't include Methane as something leading up to the legendary and much overrated "Fart Gun" device. --- --- --- Sabotaged Toilets (Out in The MMORPG's 'Ruins') ' : Realism !!! Maybe it will be the first time used, maybe sometime long later ... Splicers have already been through the drill and know better. Newbie 'Cureds' get caught with this ("Sabatoogie" as Curly Howard would call them ...) all the time. The effects of fright, startlement and dismay have be known to cause relapses in Ex-Splicers. --- --- --- '''Lonny Louse Says : ' : Animators creation for public service announcements in film theaters (employing a reverse example like 'Dimwitt' ... being a Parasite). Probly the quality was even cruder than the early Disney work (t takes alot of people ($$$) to do animation well). --- --- --- '''Fontaine Said None of Jack's Memories Were Real : Sufficient techniques to manipulate Jack were similarly used later for Little Sisters (to condition them to drink rancid goop from corpses). Nothing says that Jack's conditioning was overly extensive (ie- to act much like a human) - it need be only enough to do what Fontaine required : Get him on a plane, Move through Rapture and Kill things. Such conditioning was used also to Program Big Daddies (originally physically damaged volunteers or mentally insanes being made useful ...). Likely much more extensive for them since they did complex repairs. Delta/Sigma 'repurposed' by Tenenbaum. Eleanor perhaps using similar methods to rebuild Delta to be her savior. Rapture Family members possibly submitted to (forced into) conditioning by Lamb (were those ones seen nailed to the wall the ones who managed to resist ???). Images, sounds, drugs, ADAM mutagens (and a largely empty brain to start with) --- --- --- Home Movies Of Rapture : The usual B&W filtering and spotification/grainyness applications to the 'film' (filters for this aren't new in games). Composed using the Theater Director Creation Tools to make real generated NPC actions in 'On-the-Fly' generated terrain/props. A question my be : does it take up less space when done 'on-the-fly' as scripting (in a simulation bubble), or if pre-recorded into a compressed video format (there may be more than a few of these, and video is fairly bulky data-wise). ((Same goes for old TV/Newsreel/Movie Assets)) Part of Flashbacks to "the Early Days" of Rapture. Some might be made for clues to certain Missions. Some can be mind-numbingly boring, as such things frequently are (Fontained used a home movie of "A Sumertime Tour of the Ticonderoga Pencil Factory" to break many of the people he stole businesses from, and was also seen as a 'much feared' punishment of failure by his minions.) --- --- --- Fontaine's Electronics (seen in BaSx) ... add to list of businesses (or is it just a department? selling other peoples products ?) ''' Usually department stores didn't have a 'Sears Electronics' or 'Sears Housewares' or 'Sears Toys' 'Sears Mensware' .... it just named the type of goods for the department on the in-store signs (maybe the developers are too young to ever be in a real Department Store ???) Is it yet another 'business' that Fontaine 'bought' (strong armed someone else out of ...). Of course he had to compete with McClendon Electronics (subsidiary of McClendon Robotics) This seems to be yet more wasted money/effort (you cannot get away from Expenses in business) when Fontaine's ultimate goal was to leave Rapture, bringing ADAM to "The Big Time" on the Surface. Why bother all these penny-ante operations which would simply 'send up red flags' for Ryan to eventually catch Fontaine in crimes ??? Every dollar wasted on these is taken from building his Splicer army to take over Rapture. - Many of Fontaine's businesses were likely 'in name only' as there might be too short a time for him to do anything significantly different (or ever run the company effectively after he stole/strong-armed them away from their original owners). Employees can quit and he cannot strongarm everyone in all these diverse businesses like he did in Fontaine Fisheries. Many would simply be a waste of his money as they were small (Rapture was only so big ) and not likely to pay very much as competition with other small competitors existed. Maybe he just liked his name to be splashed everywhere. Bigger companies would have investors who would seek justice if they were 'forced' out (and that many MORE people would be out to 'Get' Fontaine if he did it criminally). Remember - Ryan ran the Security and could suppress official corruption that in the surface world otherwise allowed gangsters at times to get away with so much. - Example - Fontaine's Machinery Co (seen on Vices in BS1) : First - he's a latecomer (since he would have money only after ADAM was a success), second how many NEW vices would anybody buy (ditto for any 'machinery' of that type)? Third - hardly a profitable business and rather a boat anchor with his future goals, Fourth not splashy enough for his ego. A business Fontaine didn't create (or even understand), just bought ? Many people simply don't sell their craft, their livelihoods (compelled ? then another person gunning for him). Pretty much a case of the writers/artists having Fontaine be far too overblown, and they couldn't bother to think of any other name (opening a phone book randomly works). --- --- --- '''Stupid/Lazy 'New' plot Things/Ideas/Details - DLC-itus : Darwin has a Way of Taking Care of people who use things which simply 'Look Good' (when appearance is their majority concern -- to the detriment of everything else - safety, effectiveness, etc...). Lawyers do make a good living off people, who really don't know what they are doing, who make faulty things and sell them to other people. Fontaine's Fancy Bathyspheres in BaSx. I wonder what liabilities there are in Rapture after numerous people drowned in such flawed vehicles, or asphyxiated when their oxygen was gone from some fire (that overheating story crap to justify getting the 'Jack Frost Ice potion --- so feeble it reeks of desperate hack writing). Those vehicles would be labeled a LEMON once known to Rapture's Press (deaths are rather obvious big stories and hard to hide in such a small community). A coverup would make it even bigger news. Fontaine might try to block such a story, but Ryan had his own 'friendly' press that could be protected. SO it would have been a major scandal ontop of knowledge of Fontaines other crimes. Sorry - it couldn't be a case of Ryan running Fontaine's old businesses and patching over the shortcomings (writers still trying to villify Ryan's Philosophy and personal ethics) Remember RYAN didn't want people getting out of Rapture, and more private submarines would add to that threat to the City's secrecy. "Let The Buyer Beware" also lets the harmed customers burn down the factory and kill the maker who got their family/friends killed (or a Solomon solution : Subject them to their own faulty products ...) --- --- --- The problem in Rapture wasn't Ryan, it was a power hungry thug/criminal and the insane terrorists he unleashed. --- --- --- #77 Have that #77 (just the number) somewhere in Rapture as a typically lame 'EasterEgg' (Have an even bigger one, and then one so huge that is literally pushed into the Players Face - that's the DLC way). MMORPG doesn't have to do it quite that way, but some Players no doubt, creating new Assets, will incorporate such things in new content. BTW, there were not 77 people standing around in that Infinite BS scene, and the whole way raffles work is to pull ticket halves for people who ARE PRESENT. It would have been funny (will be funny for the redo) to have them have to randomly pull 8 numbers (for the unused ball numbers) BEFORE they even get to Booker. Details, details, details ... apparently unimportant when a contrived scene to make some point about faux-Americans is to be made by some game writers. --- --- --- pix Chemo Toaster Rejected Concept Art : Getting a little too derivative/stupid - a too obvious something created to be 'weaponized' (like that really idiotic microwave gun thing). Well its DLC, made at a game studio that was packing up and being shut down ... "Didn't Really Care" is written all over that DLC. --- --- --- Missions with Quizzes at the End : Info finding - the Player has to observe certain things and report back. Combinatorically randomized 'quiz' parts so you cannot just "Look It Up On The Internet". Some might be info 'counts' or details you have to get right. Much easier to do when Missions are given one at a time instead of canned ones the player can stack up and get to at some indetermined future time. --- --- --- Ghost Stuff in Columbia ''' : Well, we could have lots in the MMORPG remake. We ALSO can expand their scope using the MMORPG Tools to increase their varieties into much more complex dreamscapes. * All the people Fink killed working in unsafe conditions * The Wounded Knee Indians in full frozen-rot-mode haunting Comstock's waking moments * Elizabeth's mother being murdered (in 20 different dimensional versions). * The Flying City firing guns down on Peking, and all the mayhem that causes (Comstock was really there to rob the Imperial Treasury for CASH) * The people killed by Songbird (creepy Gimp-Suited thing, used to keep the Helots down, had to be sufficiently menacing). * All the other Elizabeths (who didn't quite work out) that Comstock stole before this one (various cut in half pieces -- that 'pinky' one occasion being the least messy of them). * Apparitions from some near-parallel Columbia's as they are destroyed in countless ways (lots of screaming and falling). Comstock was probably getting rather despondent over the way fate had stacked things against him). Infinite 'REVEALS' are possible (now that we have 'Ghost Stories' from INFINITE other Universes). --- --- --- '''Scatalogical Nature of the Backstory - That Industrial Revolution Marketing Gimmick : Supposedly has Columbia 'events' from 1900 trying to make the place more than the Plaster and Chickenwire Exposition 'Show City' Facade it should have been at that time. (And BEFORE Comstock took over - HOLY INCORRECT TIMELINE, BATMAN !!!!) Which being allegedly before Comstock took over was rather unlikely (but only after that was when it started getting weird, no?). (( Game Company Promotional events/stunts OFTEN have problems following the final storyline -- when that storyline itself hasn't been congealed ... '' )) It would have been nice if they could have kept their storylines straight (Sorry, can't use that excuse that it is a different dimension, OR THAT can be as easily used to crush the whole mess of the Game into irrelevancy). "Measure Twice, Cut Once" - Infinite BS might have been ALOT better if they could have followed that old saying. --- --- --- '''Flying Battleship ? Made of Plaster and Lathe ? ' : It might be noted that : the 13 inch guns of the USS Illinois (the ship modeled AT the REAL 1893 Exposition) could have fired to reach up to Columbia's maximum possible altitude and torn it to shreds. A fact like this precludes any 'regular' flights over the US by Columbia, once it had been stolen from the US Government (and that map's path criss-crossed railroads and potential Railway Artillery with similar capabilities). So in reality (contrary to much propaganda) : Columbia had to do alot of hiding. --- --- --- What Was Left For Columbia To Be ? : Looking at the REAL 1893 Columbian Exposition and its extensive/comprehensive architecture, presentations, displays and content from the US and across the World (*** Just image search "World Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893" on your favorite search engine), it all really doesn't leave all that much new, apart from the fact that it is Floating. Concentrating on THAT element would have been logical -- particularly when it comes to others funding it, and the mere months allowed (according to the games rather inept timeline). The Ferris Wheel already took people high up into the sky. Having Columbia come and go from the fair, doing daylong tours of the Chicago/Lake environs would be a major demonstration/attraction, perhaps even having some Hotel accommodations onboard for people's extended stays. You might have other Floaty vehicles ("float boats") to demonstrate a projected possible future of "Float-Liners", and advances allowing other more mundane transport (like a demonstration of bringing fresh fruit from California delivered by "Float-Cargo", and similar exploits). "Columbia" at the Exposition would be small as compared to Comstock's later Columbia (seen in-game). Repeating/duplicating the same stuff as the Exposition on the ground wouldn't be all that impressive (maybe some would be added for its World tour, later, as representative/sampling of 'modern' America -- Perhaps taking the parts of the closed Exposition (apart from the foreign bits) and eventually Float-ifying it to incorporate it all together ? That might have been a nice story idea (also to explain HOW that chaotic monstrosity might have came to be WITHOUT requiring some impossible amount of money/effort). The reality still was : that the "White City's" buildings, statues and decorations were mostly plaster (even the displayed 'Battleship' there was a mock-up built out of brick, cement and 'staff'). Did Floaty 'Barges' even exist yet ? Remember the twaddle about the first "First Lady" 'zeppelin' supposedly being filled with hydrogen, and being torched easily by those early (supposedly non-violent) Vox ? Wasn't THAT was all merely for the writers to haphazardly include a reason why so many craft looked like lighter-than-air Zeppelins ??? When they need not be (actually as 'real world' impractical that they still were) ??? The game makers apparently had to keep all that earlier stuff shown in too many promotional Trailers, or players would have screamed it wasn't the same game (it wasn't anyway), impacting sales. Such are a game company's mentalities/motivations/actions. --- --- --- --- --- . . .